When Jacquelyn Lynn contacted me asking if she could include some of my press release tips from the free tutorial “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases” in her book “The Entrepreneur’s Almanac 2008-2009–Fundamental Facts, and Figures You Need to Run and Grow Your Business,” I jumped at the chance. Being included in authors’ books… Read More
FEMA’s phony press conference a PR disaster
Talk about a PR disaster. FEMA, the federal disaster agency, created its own when it staged a phony press conference last week in which FEMA employees posed as reporters and threw soft-ball questions at agency leaders so they could tell us what a good job they were doing at the California fires. During yesterday’s commentary on “Face the… Read More
CVBs, chambers: Bring ‘Ellen’ to your town
Here’s a chance for Convention & Visitors Bureaus or chambers of commerce to strut their best stuff and bring the Ellen Degeneres Show to their town. Ellen is sponsoring a “Wish You Were Here” program. (This is not a contest for legal reasons, claims a PR rep.) It’s a 10-week project to find a city that’s special enough to… Read More
Find a writer with free classified ads
If you’re looking for a freelance writer writer for your press releases, articles, a bio for your media kit, or anything else, Angela Adair-Hoy offers free classified ads in her excellent ezine, WritersWeekly.com. Send her an email and let her know what you need. Her ezine is one of the few I stop to read, no matter… Read More
Learn 5 legal issues for online businesses
If you write articles, create information products, blog or create, publish and distribute any kind of content online, you must know how to protect yourself from the scoundrels who might be tempted to steal your content. My colleagues, Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad, are presenting a teleseminar on legal issues affecting online professionals. You… Read More
Radio-TV Interview Report gets good reviews
Radio-TV Interview Report, the magazine that TV and radio producers read to find guests, gets mostly positive reviews from speakers who have responded to a question about the effectiveness of ads they bought in that publication. In a recent issue of SpeakerNet News, a free ezine, speaker Jim Bouchard asked readers for feedback on RTIR. RTIR is published by Steve Harrison,… Read More
Holiday gift guide tips featured weekly in free ezine
Every year, newspapers, magazines, TV news shows, newsletter editors, the wire services and even nonprofits feature products and services that would make ideal holiday gifts for their audiences. It isn’t too late to pitch your product for many of these special features. Newspapers, for example, typically plan several holiday gift sections in November and December. If advertising revenue… Read More
Ellen DeGeneres could have averted a PR crisis
If only Publicity Hound Joni Hubred-Golden could have been around to help avert a PR disaster for Ellen DeGeneres and the dog rescue group Moms and Mutts. Ellen, you may have heard, adopted a terrier mix dog named Iggy from the nonprofit dog rescue group Moms and Mutts. When the dog didn’t get along with her cats, she… Read More
Halloween promotion ideas to generate publicity
Here are some ideas on how to promote a product, service, cause or issue by tying it to Halloween, the second largest retail holiday of the year. They’re courtesy of TV producer Shawne Duperon, one of my guests during next week’s media plan teleseminar series: —Sponsor a pumpkin-carving contest at your company. Challenge participants to carve… Read More
Free press release distribution for Calif. wildfire news
Starting immediately, PR Newswire is offering to distribute press releases free of charge if they pertain to the wildfires in California. It has created an archive of releases on both the public site and the media-only PR Newswire for Journalists website. To take advantage of the free service, submit a news release via email and use the subject line “California Wildfires.” Include… Read More